Alumni Spotlight - Angelina Freeman

M.S., Environmental Science, 2004

Ph.D., Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, 2010

Coastal Resources Scientist

Louisianan Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority

You are currently working as a scientist at CPRA and part of your duties include overall
management and technical guidance to support Master Plan implementation through the
Center of Excellence Research Grants Program. What is your typical work-day like?

I am involved in a number of CPRA projects that range from project specific modeling,
the Hypoxia Task Force, Master Plan development, applied science, to overall management
and technical guidance to the RESTORE Center of Excellence Grants Program. My typical
day is rarely without project meetings. For example, the comprehensive Master Plan
for coastal restoration and protection is being developed by a team of over 70 scientist
and engineers, and there is a lot of need for coordination. A number of LSU academics
contribute to the modeling team and also serve on the Technical Advisory Committee
and Science & Engineering Board.

You received first a master’s in environmental science and then a Ph.D. in Oceanography
and Coastal Sciences from LSU. What are some of the most important things that you
feel that you learned in your time here?

One of the most important things I learned at LSU is the importance of collaborative
work. Fortunately, I get to collaborate with a lot of LSU graduates since many of
my colleagues studied at LSU. A number of CPRA staff are LSU and CC&E PhD and MS graduates,
and many colleagues at federal and state agencies, consulting firms, nonprofits, and
Universities CPRA collaborates with are LSU graduates or affiliated with LSU. CPRA
also has a Coastal Science Assistantship Program to support Master of Science students,
and I have mentored some of the LSU students during their internship with CPRA as
part of the program. CC&E plays a very important role in educating the next generation
of coastal researchers.

What else are you working on?

A CPRA-funded research project that includes a team of researchers led by Dr. Harry
Roberts used the Wax Lake Delta and surrounding marshlands as field study areas to
investigate fundamental relationships of sediment transport-deposition within the
system related to the physical forcing processes of floods and cold front passages.
The project also addresses the importance of suspended sediments and not just sand
for land building. Nutrient fluxes within the system and impacts of suspended sediments
and nutrients on productivity of delta and mainland plant communities are also focal
points of the investigation. Project results were designed to improve our science-based
understanding of river diversions, where they should be located for the most efficient
land-building (highest retention rate), and where they have the most positive impact
on both maintenance and improved productivity of plant communities in diversion-flanking
environments. This study is very timely and a few major findings are mentioned below:

I am excited about a new project with LSU researchers to inform CPRA planning and
implementation of sediment diversion projects. CPRA will contract with LSU researchers
to update existing CPRA documentation of the effects of diversion-borne freshwater,
nutrients and sediments on receiving basin wetlands and estuarine water bodies to
account for recent literature and relevant SWAMP data. CPRA is developing a separate
contract to facilitate an external peer review of the revised documents, and will
also release the draft-revised documentation for public comment. These comments will
be taken into consideration for the final deliverable to CPRA.

Predictive models are integral to large-scale and long-term planning efforts. As a
modeler, uncertainty is, kind of ironically, the clearest challenge that you face.
How does science help you face this challenge? What would you say to critics who believe
that we are not making enough progress fast enough?

Please help us make progress! And I mean that broadly – critics can be very helpful
if they point out areas of uncertainties or knowledge gaps, or incorrect assumptions.

Ecosystem restoration is increasing in Louisiana to a scale that has not previously
been realized. Coastal Louisiana is also a “working landscape” where the natural and
socio-economic systems are highly integrated, making management inherently difficult.

Future conditions are also highly uncertain due to the dynamics of riverine and marine
processes, storm events, climate change, population growth, economic activity, and
ongoing human reliance on the natural resources the coast provides.

Using models to predict future conditions is challenging; one of the complicating
factors is the uncertainty in environmental conditions over a 50 year planning horizon.
To account for these uncertainties in future environmental conditions, a scenario
analysis approach was taken in the Master Plan. A range of future predictions representing
the range in environmental conditions was produced using this approach. This range
of possible futures provides decision makers with a range of what the future without
action may look like, as well as the insight into project performance under a range
of future conditions.

What would you tell graduate students if you could give one important piece of advice
about graduate school?

As you are preparing for your career in graduate school, my advice would be to also
consider a career outside the traditional track of academia.